The show faces a dilemma: Its source material is now old enough to feel dated, but too recent to be classic. The TV adaptation of The Power premieres on Prime Video tomorrow. Vogue called it “genius … a reversal of the 2016 presidential election debates so delicious it stings.” In one particularly prescient chapter, Margot gets so angry during a gubernatorial debate that she electrocutes her opponent onstage though she assumes her outburst will cost her the race, she ends up winning easily. Amid incessant news about the sexually predatory behavior of prominent men, many readers found catharsis in The Power’s vision of a world where women lived without fear or self-diminishment. In the US, the book came out in October 2017, several months into Donald Trump’s presidency and right alongside the surging #MeToo movement. The book follows several characters in their entangled stories: politician Margot and her daughter Jos, gangster’s daughter Roxy, false prophet Allie, and journalist Tunde, the one male protagonist. As women learn to use their newfound strength, they start to overthrow, then oppress, the men who once dominated them. When Naomi Alderman’s speculative novel The Power came out in 2017, the Washington Post hailed it as “our era’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale.’” The 378-page book is an epic exploration of power and gender, set in a world where women suddenly acquire the ability to generate electricity from their hands.
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